The Play Store is where you go to watch your other apps get updated, but occasionally it's nice to sit back and watch as the store gets its own renovation. Sometimes the changes are stark. Other times, there are just a few new lights here or there.

What's New?

In version 5.4, it's not about what's been added, but what's been taken away. The notification bar has lost its color. Now Play Store pages appear with banner images that reach towards the top of the screen. The green strip doesn't return to the bar until you start to scroll down.

Left: Old,Right: New

The amount of chrome at the top of the screen has gradually eroded since 5.2. Googler Kirill Grouchnikov shared an image highlighting this on Google+.

This release also temporarily gets rid of all of the Play Store widgets from the homescreen's add menu, including those that show what media you have saved in your library (otherwise known as the widget that you immediately removed when first launching the device) as well as the one that makes recommendations... but only on Nexus devices (tested on a Nexus 5, 7, and 9). However, restarting the devices brought the widgets back. All non-Nexus phones and tablets we've installed 5.4 on did not exhibit this behavior.

To get the APK, you know what to do. Let us know if you come across any additional changes.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

Comments

:c
I liked the top bar (with the WiFi and stuff) with the changing colors like in the contacts app :c

7-down

About time! That green bar was annoying to look at. #firstworldproblems

Алекс

also need to make this scary black navigation bar transparent

Matthew Fry

Everywhere./

David Onter

It's possible, I don't understand why they don't implement it...

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Or rather get rid of it altogether, or at LEAST make it smaller

miri

The minimum recommended touch target size is 48dp, the current height of the nav bar.

navbar

Get rid of it? That's never going to happen and not even I want to see that happen, and I don't really like the navbar.

What I want to see is an option to make it smaller, and an option to put an button in the notification drawer that forces immersive mode. I hate that I have to use a custom rom just to have this two features.

For forcing immersive mode, you can install Power Toggles from the play store and have it as a persistent notification in the notification shade; you can prevent it's icon from showing up in the status bar as well. Root or a custom ROM is not needed. I currently use this on my Nexus 7 2013.

Joaquim Thomas

it would be kind of difficult to see. they should make it an option

ConCal

Its not like I look at it anyways. Its all muscle memory now.

YouNex

Try a launcher that removes shadow, with a white wallpaper... Lot of apps are white themed, unless u want a colored bar on the bottom (too)

Adrian Vovk

No, they should make it change color based on what's is shown above it. If its a blue bar then it is blue. If its a white background then the bar is white with dark icons etc.

Lukáš Pávl

Well sadly only for 5.0+

David Onter

Yeah, since 5.0 is the first to support that type of transparent status bars...

In code it is NOT the same thing. The API used is different in LP; KK uses translucency (because of gradient), not transparency, with padding hacks to get UI to show underneath if you wanted the illusion of a "colored status bar". What don't you understand about this? I'm also willing to bet that KK translucency is more expensive in CPU / GPU cycles than a LP transparent / colored status bar.

Not for the same purpose. KK transparency is for immersive mode which is used for stuff like videos. Getting UI to not go under it when you don't want it to requires padding hacks. This is an official feature on Lollipop now that avoids that.

YouNex

This is KitKat.
Also, Launcher animations can go under translucents status and navigation bars, same as Recent apps, camera preview...

miri

That's a different type of transparent status bar (with a protection scrim) which is in both Kitkat and Lollipop. The non-scrimmed and colored status bars were introduced in Lollipop, the former is what's being used in the Play Store.

@Artem Russakovskii: Why does it not work on Android 4.4.2? Can you explain me that maybe?

David Onter

Because you need lollipop to have native colored/transparent status-bars.

Total Faith

So... It would work work Xposed, right? I uninstalled the Xposed Framework, because it made my phone freaking slow, lol.

Renaldi I.

An Xposed mod would do it by padding hacks and workarounds. KitKat doesn't do it natively.

Total Faith

Thank you for your explanation! :)

Eric Anderson

Yessss when backing out of an app listing the app icon naturally flows back into place in the list, unlike before when the top and bottom would separate and disappear into the top (hard to explain but it certainly wasn't appealing).

senor_heisenberg

Looks much better this way.

qwd54trwfdwfwe

Does not work on N6 5.1 stock, after installation, keeps crashing, had to uninstall

David Onter

Clear cache & data and you won't have problems anymore.

rustu

After install it will crash, you NEED to clean data and cache of it to work..

David Onter

Didn't crash for me.

Justin

Me neither

David Onter

And also, don't tell me what to do.

WilliamTell13

Only transparent on Lollipop?

David Onter

Yes, of course.

shamatuu

i like it

dfsfds

u fucking asssholes!!! it fucked all my google apps!!!

ConCal

No it didn't. Clam down and grow up.

Matt Hay

It did on my N4. Wiping Data did not fix, nor did removing and reinstalling Play Services and the Play Store. I had to reflash the images. Something is screwy with this version. (It worked fine on my N7 2013)

It was supposed to be transparent at the beggining of Lollipop. Google should do the same thing for Maps and YouTube.

Tommy

Sometimes I really do not to what to write about Google updates (via Play Store on my 4.2.2, yes I know it's JB, but it is what it is). Last time I had been waiting Play Store update (to 5.3.6, I think) for a month, day before yesterday it updated (to 5.4.10) automatically even before a notice in the App Mirror.
Tommy, Croatia, EU